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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Ekos says auto meridian flip has worked, but it didn't happen

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I am running the latest Kstars/Ekos etc. from the launchpad PPA on 64-bit Mint 19 with a NEQ6 mount. Until recently automated meridian flips (set to happen 0.2 hours after the meridian) have been working without a problem.

In the last week or so however, Ekos has been informing me that the flip is due, waiting for the current sub to finish, initiating the flip, saying it worked successfully and then centering the target and restarting guiding, just as I would expect. But the mount has not moved.

I was wondering if this might be some sort of issue with DST, but I have a second NEQ6 set up the same way running on the same OS that did flip properly last night when the other failed to do so.

Any suggestions as to why this might happen or how I might work out what's going on would be gratefully received.

James
3 years 11 months ago #52014

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It might be related yes, but it may be something else. Because a long-running mount may offset progressively, try to find the limit position at which the mount will choose one side or the other near the meridian. Then check the position is properly reported to KStars and the telescope marker is where you expect it. If the flip didn't work, you may find out it is not. This issue is easily hidden while observing by the alignment procedure corrections of Ekos, which "fix" the reported position from encoder values.

The problem may also appear if the mount did hit the tripod for some time, and then you parked the mount, and then you unlocked the axes to realign the mount to the celestial pole. Doing this is a sure method to bring you in the missing flip situation.

In the mentioned situations, you need to reset the mount encoders values to the default when in the park position.

-Eric
3 years 11 months ago #52054

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Ah, now it did throw a bit of a fit when I tried to park it when finishing up a couple of weeks back. Somehow it appeared to have lost its idea of where "home" was. Perhaps that's related. Certainly it looks like resetting the mount's idea of where it is might be a good place to start, if I can just work out how to do it.

James
3 years 11 months ago #52057

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See the Site Management tab in the Telescope tab of the INDI Control Panel.
3 years 11 months ago #52061

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EKOS currently has no idea if the flip happened, all it does is wait until the mount should be in a position where a slew will do a flip, then slew and hope.

Im in the process of refactoring this so that Ekos is aware of the pier side state of the mount. It does the flip at the same time but can check if it worked and if it hadn't will retry a little later.

I need to Phight my way through the Phabricator release system...
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
3 years 11 months ago #52071

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I had a similar issue. I finally got it sorted by parking the mount, unparking it, resetting the mount driver to defaults, parking it again and then releasing the clutches so they were pointing in the right direction. If the hour angle on the mount tab doesn't jibe with the hour angle in KStars, this should help.
3 years 11 months ago #52084

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